Book of the Black Hills, Volume 3, Chapter 15

[Valkpilot]

Book of the Black Hills 315, Day 6: Wet, But Not A Dream

The day's plan is to head south, dine at a fancy wood-fired pizza/microbrewery in Estes Park, CO, traverse Rocky Mountain National Park in the afternoon, and overnight in Winter Park, CO.

This was the intended route:



Naturally, the route would change since the bridge was still out at Lusk, and for no other reason than our plans seemed destined for change this trip.  Today, especially, but we didn't know how much yet.

I started to pack the bike in the morning drizzle, literally not smart enough to come in out of the rain.




Not JC.  Class is in session and the Old Salt is the school master.




Tom too, got packed and prepped and stayed dry doing so.




Not being a complete imbecile, I moved my bike under the hotel canopy as well and finished my packing there.

Now it's time to roll the dice --not in the hotel casino, but on the road with over 400 miles to ride and a massive storm front hanging over South Dakota, Wyoming, and northern Colorado.




Fortunately it's just drizzle at the moment, so we head west on I-90 toward Gillette where we'll turn south on Wyoming 59 and connect up with I-25, and heading down to Loveland, CO for the turn west again for Estes Park and RMNP.

Maybe the drizzle wasn't so fortunate, as it allowed a thick blanketing fog to lay close to the ground.  An I-can't-see-the-lane-lines fog.  A deer-ambush-motorcycles-from-hiding fog.  We survived this gauntlet and just south of Gillette the fog lifted.

And was replaced by rain. Heavy, driving rain, through which we rode, on and off, for the rest of the day.

Miles and miles of this kind of riding is draining.  Not only do you have to be more vigilant, not only does the discomfort take a toll, but there is also the constant awareness that you're falling behind schedule since you can't ride as fast as you thought you would back when you were dry and comfortable with your trip planning software up on the screen in front of you.  Anxiety as well as the physical and mental challenge of pushing through near-constant downpour saps you.

Just north of Cheyenne, JC announces that his boots are soaked through.  He says he needs new ones anyway and wants some that are more waterproof.  He suggests that we find a motorcycle dealership in Cheyenne.  Tom chimes in that both his first and second pair of gloves are in sad shape too, so it seems like a plan.

JC's GPS indicates a Honda dealer not far off I-25 on US-30.  We head there.  Surprise! It converted to a Harley dealership three months ago!  It doesn't matter.  Warm and dry trumps brand prejudice.  (Tom manages to find gloves sold on the CanAm/Spyder side of the store, at least.)

We get back on the road.  It is still raining.  It's getting late.  We're tired and it's clear we won't make our intended destination so we call an audible and pull of the Interstate at Fort Collins and find a motel.

We order in pizza because we don't even want to cross the highway to go to dinner.

Remember that pre-ride prep Tom did?  We undid it all that night.

Before:



After:




It's still raining lightly.  We fall asleep wondering if tomorrow will be a repeat of today.

[BnB Tom]

  My hands are STILL drying out.

But yes, a little Crown Black definitely brought some warmth back into the body. 

                      BTW.  Have we passed the part where you and JC decided to run the red light because you were tired of waiting for it to change. 

[Valkpilot]

                      BTW.  Have we passed the part where you and JC decided to run the red light because you were tired of waiting for it to change. 

My mind is a blank.

[Valkpilot]

Book of the Black Hills 315, Day 7: High in Colorado


The planned route was a rather leisurely 400 some-odd miles from Winter Park, CO to Ouray, CO.



But, calling the game early yesterday added 150 miles to the day and rock slides on I-70 caused us to rethink the route.  Plans?  Ha! Who needs them?




Things do work out, though.  Had we attempted to make it through Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday, it would have been a gray, wet, miserable experience, to say nothing of rushed.  Instead, today dawned dry, with a promise of sunshine later in the day.  Things were looking up, so to speak.

Between Loveland and Estes Park, route 34 runs alongside the Big Thompson River, through the canyon it created.  It made for some nice video.



By the time we got to the park, the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining.  The vistas were spectacular.








At least they were as long as you kept the foregrounds uncluttered.




Or just took pictures of each other.






Of course, "The Pose" is always in order.




And apparently, it was critters-get-in-half-off day.













There was even a possible Bigfoot sighting.




Nope.  Just JC.




US-34 through RMNP is called the Trail Ridge Road.  It rises above the tree line to elevations slightly higher than 12,000 feet.  Even though it was June, there was still plenty of snow.


We spent the rest of the day riding south and west on great roads and through wonderful scenery.  As we turned south for the final time at Montrose, it was approaching sundown.  This made the final miles to Ouray not so relaxing, as I've got a deer phobia, and there were game fences lining the highway most of the way.

We checked into the Timber Ridge Lodge just outside of town, dropped luggage, and headed into Ouray to find a restaurant.  We settled for pub grub, where Tom broke his pledge and had a burger.  Temptation can only be resisted so long, I guess.






We returned to the hotel, still able to view this mountain from the parking lot.




We're still a little ragged from the previous couple of days, so we decided to sleep in a little in the morning before a long day challenging the Million Dollar Highway and heading for Tucumcari, NM.

[Red Diamond]

Route 34 thru Estes Park, what a ride!

[Jess from VA]

Thanks. 

[BnB Tom]

  I believe this most recent segment could also be named,
                                       "How I spent Father's Day 2016"...  editing and posting another part of a fantastic trip!  

[Hoser]

That is a report that could be published in book form.  Very well done.  The black hills and Rushmore area are my favorite riding area, hope I get there at least one more time.  Hoser 

[Valkpilot]

That is a report that could be published in book form.  Very well done.  The black hills and Rushmore area are my favorite riding area, hope I get there at least one more time.  Hoser 

Thank you.

There's still two more days to go!

[Valkpilot]

Book of the Black Hills 315, Day 8: A Robust Ride

The planets have aligned such that we're back on track according to the pre-trip plans.  If they stay aligned, we plan to hump 460 odd miles from Ouray, CO to Tucumcari, NM.




We woke up to almost the same view of the mountain as when we retired the night before.




But in the morning, the view keeps expanding as the sun rises higher.




We head through Ouray and start our run at the Million Dollar Highway.

About halfway between Ouray and Silverton are vestiges of the Idarado mine, which actually was a consolidation of several independent mines, the oldest of which date from the late 19th century and operated for nearly 100 years.






It's hard to believe this was once an industrialized area.  The state of Colorado has obviously gone to great lengths to make sure the land was properly reclaimed and restored.







Here's a link to a full-sized version of the panorama.  Click on the link, then click on the picture when it loads and it will expand to full size.  Be patient, it's about 6Mb large.

Idarado Large Panorama


Where I work, we practice something called "Robust Dialog."  It's essentially a communication style where you directly but respectfully deal with disagreements head-on.  Done in a professional way, it clears the air for real action without having to deal with mixed messages,  hidden agendas, or personal feuds.

Well, this morning I made a poor leadership decision.  It was a well-intentioned but short-sighted choice and it didn't sit well with JC, so he called me out on it when we got to Durango.  I'm not sure we followed all the rules of this communication technique, but the Dialog was definitely Robust.








From Pagosa Springs to Santa Fe, we had a storm front hanging right all around us.  We were pretty sure we were going to get wet and even suited up once or twice in preparation for it.  We could see it raining sometimes in front of us, sometimes to our right, sometimes to our left.  But somehow the road just seemed to divide the front and we passed through unscathed.


We planned a late lunch in Sante Fe at a Food Network-recommended restaurant, followed by a traditional cigar-on-the-square.  But we couldn't find the restaurant, it spite of multiple trips around the block with our collective GPS units telling us we had arrived at someplace we obviously had not.  And on top of it Sante Fe was hosting one of its near-continuous special events, so it was very crowded.

We stopped to consult...



...and decided we'd head on and make do with gas-stop snacks until we reached Tucumcari.


We typically take a back-roads route from Las Vegas, NM to Tucumcari.  It must have been another coupon day for wildlife because we saw deer, antelope, and elk.  In the case of the elk, it was a large female who, in response to my honking, looked up then turned and calmly stepped over a four foot barbed-wire fence before trotting away.

Part of the reason we take the back way is that it gives us a chance to stop at the Conchas dam which was built to create a recreational oasis in the wilds of northeastern New Mexico.






We reached Tucumcari in plenty of time for Mexican food at Del's, followed by cigars and drinks at the hotel as we watched the sun fade in the west.




Tomorrow we're homeward bound.

[Jess from VA]

Thanks.   

[Valkpilot]

Book of the Black Hills 315, Day 9: From the High Plains to Home


On this final day, we're going to crank out 430 or so miles, single-mindedly focused on sleeping in our own beds tonight.

About half the ride will be spent either on or descending from the Illano Estacado - the Staked Plains of the high desert.  If you look at the map you can see the Lubbock sits right on the edge of a major escarpment line, and that US-62 runs roughly along a second escarpment line to the east.  We'll drop in elevation about 2500 feet between Amarillo and Dallas.




Not far east of the New Mexico border is the town of Adrian, TX.  Adrian lies on old US Route 66 and its claim to fame is that it is the halfway point of the Mother Road between it's origin in Chicago and terminus in Los Angeles.




Although there are reports to the contrary, the only going concern in Adrian that we've ever seen is the Midpoint Café, a revived old-school roadside diner.










If such a thing is possible, it was still too early in the day for PIE, so instead we loaded up our cups with to-go coffee and stepped back outside to do some touristy stuff.






And that was pretty much that.  Except for gas we didn't stop, in fact barely slowed down, the rest of the day.  I recall us throwing something resembling food down our necks while standing by the bikes somewhere near Wichita Falls. Clearly convenience and speed of consumption took priority over impressive vittles.


I know it's taken a full cycle of the calendar (plus a little) to complete this modest travelogue, but the time has given Tom, JC, and me ample opportunity to reflect that we really had a great trip.  It was 3,800 miles of mostly good weather, terrific roads, wonderful scenery, no real mechanical issues, and favored riding companions.

And now this is finished in time to do it again. Hmmm, I haven't checked off a bunch of the northwest...

[Disco]

Thanks for the excellent ride report, VP.    

[BnB Tom]

                         

                                   


                    A memory that will last a lifetime!
 

[HayHauler]

Thanks for a most awesome ride report.  I look forward to the next one of the Northwestern states.  

Hay.
Jimmyt.  

[Valkpilot]

The Million Dollar Highway video in the Day 8 segment was acting up.  Took forever to load and then stopped periodically to buffer.  Must have been uploaded to one of YouTube's 1st gen servers or something.

I deleted it from YouTube, then re-uploaded it and updated the link.  Seems to work better now.